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What started out as one of my favorite shows of the season managed to descend, as many anime seem to do, into unintelligible crap towards the end.

Others have said this, but how could Kanade have gotten Otonashi's heart and be in the world long before he gets there? Does the timeline in our reality not impact theirs? If so, why aren't there Japanese schoolchildren from ancient Japan who died tragic deaths?

I realllllly didn't like that ending. The exchange between Otonashi and Kanade right before the credits ruined the series for me. I almost feel like it was a bad end.

I felt like a lot of the characters didn't get a proper exit; and even with the ones that did, it still didn't feel right. I think most of the blah I got from this ep was because usually in shows/anime they have the climatic triumph at the end, followed by celebration/being happy or whatever, but in this case, Angel Beats did the whole climatic thing last week, then a whole week goes by and now we just had an ep by itself of just mush. Maybe it'd be better to go through the series in one sitting instead of on a weekly basis.

I made a graph of how I felt throughout watching the whole series:

Which incidentally kind of resembles the heartbeat logo thing they show in the OP.

Well at least one scene this episode, for me anyway, met my expectations. The series as a whole though? Well I still enjoyed it but.....

I just had a funny thought too: with the new iPhone just coming out and a war brewing between the iPhone fan-boys and iPhone haters, it really reminded me of a series like this. You either hate it or love it, and people will defend their camp to the internet-death. Sorry I know I'm just babbling on, but I found the similarity amusing.

I was actually agreeing with Otonashi's idea that maybe he was purposely put into that world to help everyone that was stuck out. Of course the ending shows that eventually he did get reincarnated but we don't see him actually disappear so I wonder if he disappeared right after Kanade or did he stay in that world for a while afterwards. Personally I lean to that he probably stayed there for a while, I know he was breaking down after she disappeared but I think he would have decided to still stay at least for a while. Maybe he eventually found someone to pass the torch on like Kanade sort of passed the torch to him.

Barring plenty of unexplained, debatable stuff, the episode was a pretty emotional and decent finale to the series.

As someone mentioned, Otonashi's selfish desire to stay in the afterlife with Tenshi can be very polarizing for us audiences, but I personally found that it worked really well in developing his character. The decision makes him much more human in my eyes, and not merely a saint that he was portrayed as during most of the series. His whole life (and afterlife!) had been devoted to helping people, whether it was someone who was stranded in a collaped tunnel or someone who was unable to let go of their grudge against God, he'd do everything within his abilities to save them. But now that his mission is complete (i.e. everyone has already moved on), he's faced with the prospect of eternal happiness with someone he loves, so he decides he wants to be selfish for once. Is that pathetic? Maybe, but Otonashi is allowed to do this because entire existence in this world is due to a flaw in the program. Compared to the Programmer who, in the end, chose to wait indefinitely for his lover, at least Otonashi was eventually able to let go when Kanade asked for it.

If we're talking about Otonashi confessing his undyling love to Tenshi being sudden though, I'd have to agree with that to an extent. Then again, like Yui/Hinata's marriage thing, there were a good number of hints littered throughout the series that would allude to this ending, so I suppose I don't mind it too much.

1. Yuri said that nobody who commits suicide comes to the school. But...why? It makes no sense now. If they are dead, and they are there at that school to come to terms with their bad life..... then wouldn't there be a ton of suicide victims there?! I mean.... suicide victims I would suspect had unhappy lives and would need to come to terms with their lives, right? They more than anyone were so unhappy with "living" that they ended life themselves.

2. How did Kanade who got Otanashi's heart, find herself at the school long before Otanashi got there?

3. If they are dead, then how the heck can Kanade say "Your heart is beating right here." No it's not. Your dead. It would be DEAD too.

4. How can Otanashi's body react to the heart? It's dead! But....if we somehow think that they were in a coma, and they just never showed it..... wait.... that won't work either. Why? Because Otanashi doesn't even have a heart! So how can a guy without a heart (supposedly dead) have a body that can react to an equally should be dead heart inside a donor girl?

5. If they are all dead.... then what the heck was up with Yui and Hinata's storyline? We saw future flashbacks of Hinata coming to Yui's bedside while she was STILL paralyzed. What? Was that an LSD, PCP, Angel Dust (rofl) induced flashback? >.< If they are dead, then that makes the HinataXYui pairing far less romantic.

6. God..... remember Him? His name was behind the graduation banner in the last episode. Yup.... we sure got to know more about that plot.....didn't we....

7. The MATRIX Overseer.... what? Did KEY finally watch the Matrix Reloaded and decid to pay homage? There was hardly any explanation for this or meaning.

8. The Characters in the last episode..... SERIOUSLY?! All of them changed on the dime. I mean, everyone but Hinata changed. You could barely recognize Yuri, Otanashi, or Kanade at all. Did the creators decide to have us suspend belief and pretend that a tremendous amount of character development had suddenly occurred during the brief off screen time? lol

9. So what happened? I mean it... what in the world happened at the end? Guess what... we still don't know. Why? Because they wouldn't tell us. Reincarnation? Comas? Evil Shadow Monster Locke? Oh wait...strike that last one. Wrong show. >_>

For a show that started out with a lot of potential, and coming from the studio that created a masterpiece like CLANNAD, this was indeed a let down.

There are so many loose ends it's ridiculous.

The only thing more ridiculous are the comments being left on a certain website where people are saying "This is the best anime ever made in the history of anime!"

>_>

Yeah....somehow I feel I'll have to disagree with them on that statement.

1] Kanade was humming My Song. and Otonashi recognizes it. this implies that both got out of the Afterlife World and back into the Real World. How else can My Brave Song humming fit into the ending then?

if not for Kanade humming My Song...its possible to speculate that they reincarnate/had 2nd life. but no! My Song is the "Key" and "Connection" to tell you 1 thing.

1] they got out of Afterlife World and resume their life in the Real World

What started out as one of my favorite shows of the season managed to descend, as many anime seem to do, into unintelligible crap towards the end.

This is the only thing that really needs to be said about this show. xD

Also, it would have been redeemable if Otanashi had been stuck there because he wanted to meet Kanade again. Repeating the story of the guy that caused the shadows, without even knowing it, would have been some good trolling. I wonder how many people would have enjoyed/raged at an ending like that. <_<

1. Yuri said that nobody who commits suicide comes to the school. But...why? It makes no sense now. If they are dead, and they are there at that school to come to terms with their bad life..... then wouldn't there be a ton of suicide victims there?! I mean.... suicide victims I would suspect had unhappy lives and would need to come to terms with their lives, right? They more than anyone were so unhappy with "living" that they ended life themselves.

2. How did Kanade who got Otanashi's heart, find herself at the school long before Otanashi got there?

3. If they are dead, then how the heck can Kanade say "Your heart is beating right here." No it's not. Your dead. It would be DEAD too.

4. How can Otanashi's body react to the heart? It's dead! But....if we somehow think that they were in a coma, and they just never showed it..... wait.... that won't work either. Why? Because Otanashi doesn't even have a heart! So how can a guy without a heart (supposedly dead) have a body that can react to an equally should be dead heart inside a donor girl?

5. If they are all dead.... then what the heck was up with Yui and Hinata's storyline? We saw future flashbacks of Hinata coming to Yui's bedside while she was STILL paralyzed. What? Was that an LSD, PCP, Angel Dust (rofl) induced flashback? >.< If they are dead, then that makes the HinataXYui pairing far less romantic.

6. God..... remember Him? His name was behind the graduation banner in the last episode. Yup.... we sure got to know more about that plot.....didn't we....

7. The MATRIX Overseer.... what? Did KEY finally watch the Matrix Reloaded and decid to pay homage? There was hardly any explanation for this or meaning.

8. The Characters in the last episode..... SERIOUSLY?! All of them changed on the dime. I mean, everyone but Hinata changed. You could barely recognize Yuri, Otanashi, or Kanade at all. Did the creators decide to have us suspend belief and pretend that a tremendous amount of character development had suddenly occurred during the brief off screen time? lol

9. So what happened? I mean it... what in the world happened at the end? Guess what... we still don't know. Why? Because they wouldn't tell us. Reincarnation? Comas? Evil Shadow Monster Locke? Oh wait...strike that last one. Wrong show. >_>

1. Yuri denied suicide without Otonashi even mentioning the word. I'd say that falls under specifically specific denial. Of course it's not confirmed but it would fit with her character at least in my mind.

2. It's an afterlife, you don't have to get there at the same time, or it could be my crack theory that she ended up there and Otonashi was put there specifically to help her because he was the only one who could help her to pass on.

5. That was just imagining of the scenario that Hinata narrated for Yui. I mean that's all it was.

6. There was no God in the series. It was an afterlife for young people to get over their regrets before being reborn again into the world.

7. This was explained, he was just a program left behind by the guy who made angel player and everything. After Yuri trashed the computers he disappeared.

If Angel Beats was not a mixed media project [split between Dengeki G's Magazine for part of the story, a prologue, and the anime, etc...] I'm pretty sure it would have been a better anime series to watch. If everyone's stories were to be animated, it would span a 52 episode series, or even more. Ending would've been great, if it weren't so rushed, as with the rest of the series.

Wonder what happens to Yuzuru and Kanade after that. Maybe he just watches over her somehow...

Fujibayashi Ryou (referring to her fortune telling):
If the results come true, itís as if thereís only one future.
But if it fails, we can think that other futures exist.We never know how the future shifts because of the slightest change.
I want to believe that in our future, there are many possibilities waiting.Ryou is underrated. She deserves more respect.

8. The Characters in the last episode..... SERIOUSLY?! All of them changed on the dime. I mean, everyone but Hinata changed. You could barely recognize Yuri, Otanashi, or Kanade at all. Did the creators decide to have us suspend belief and pretend that a tremendous amount of character development had suddenly occurred during the brief off screen time? lol

Well to be fair Yurippe's personality might have changed when she became an NPC. It seems like she had a carefree personality when she was in school. Maybe that could have been her original personality if her siblings did not get killed. I did like her last line though Lets Meet Somewhere which is what I hope they do.

lol I like my twist ending better and I'm sure many other people already thought about his end. Otanashi was the original creator of Angel Player waiting for his loved one. He recently got of of being an NPC, but as a result got amnesia. Otanashi was the only exception that mistakenly was in this world and that fits the decscription the advance NPC that got killed by Yurippe in episode 12.

I am so confused. I mean, yay for feel-good ending and all, but after the feelings go away, all I've got are questions as to how their world even works. I mean, so people get to reincarnate with the memories that they had during their stay in the afterlife? Or what about memories of their past lives? Or did the not reincarnate and just go to heaven instead? Or did they reincarnate into the same time period they were in before? Because clearly time doesn't flow in a straightforward manner in this world, given the who Kanade heart thing. And don't even get me started on the whole God/Matrix afterlife subplot.

I have a hard time suspending my disbelief when I don't get enough information as to how things work.

2. How did Kanade who got Otanashi's heart, find herself at the school long before Otanashi got there?

3. If they are dead, then how the heck can Kanade say "Your heart is beating right here." No it's not. Your dead. It would be DEAD too.

5. If they are all dead.... then what the heck was up with Yui and Hinata's storyline? We saw future flashbacks of Hinata coming to Yui's bedside while she was STILL paralyzed. What? Was that an LSD, PCP, Angel Dust (rofl) induced flashback? >.< If they are dead, then that makes the HinataXYui pairing far less romantic.

8. The Characters in the last episode..... SERIOUSLY?! All of them changed on the dime. I mean, everyone but Hinata changed. You could barely recognize Yuri, Otanashi, or Kanade at all. Did the creators decide to have us suspend belief and pretend that a tremendous amount of character development had suddenly occurred during the brief off screen time? lol

2. Otonashi made it there by mistake so it's possible that he didn't arrive in that world right away it was never mentioned if they arrived right after dying

3. Take Yui's case she's not paralyzed. The world practically gave them a new temporary life.

5. That was Yui's imagining what her life would've been if she met Hinata and she passed on knowing that someone would've loved her for who she was

8. Yuri's regret was cleared up in ep 12, as for Kanade it's not shown how she suddenly shows a lot of emotion possibly an OVA would explain what happens in those 3 day gaps along with the other member's disappearances